Hi Group,

I thought that all mandates for the slash designation were gone except for 
when you move from country to country and from state to state.

For example, if you live in New York State--a 2 call district, and you are 
camping in Ohio--an 8 call district state, you would identify as (in my case 
where my callsign is AA2VM) as AA2VM/W8 or perhaps just AA2VM/8.

Most people would identify as mobile as in AA2VM/mobile just to alert the 
corresponding stations that they are mobile and that their movement may 
cause their receive-ability to change--moment to moment.  Portable is used 
when the station is fixed in another area outside the call district of the 
transmitting station, but as far as I know--as of the late 1980's or early 
1990's the FCC requirement to identify as portable was dropped.  That is why 
you hear thousands of ham calls with W1 and W2 that are located in Florida. 
FCC rules allow for individual operators to keep their original calls (and 
now with the vanity calls) it really doesn't seem to matter any 
ways--regardless of relocation.  I used to like it when FCC required a 
district number change when individuals moved from one call district to 
another.  You used to be able to turn your rig on and on a specific band at 
a specific time determine from which direction or area signals were 
strongest by just listening to the callsigns.  This is no longer 
possible--oh for the good old days <laugh>!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Yearns" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2011 1:04 PM
Subject: Re: Question about proper call designator for RV HF operation


I believe portable is as accurate as it can get.  Unless you are actually
driving at the time, then mobile works.
Ron
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "tom behler" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, May 08, 2011 8:52 PM
Subject: Question about proper call designator for RV HF operation


> Hi, all.
>
> I struggle with the following question at the beginning of every camping
> season.
>
> What is the proper way for me to identify myself when operating HF in the
> RV?  Does the answer to this question depend on whether I'm just having a
> normal QSO, checking into a net, or working a contest?
>
> Putting a portable designator at the end of my call seems to make sense,
> since I am not at my home station.  However, I usually  run my station via
> commercial  AC power, except on those rare occasions when I want to give
> our
> generator a work-out.
>
> Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
>
> 73 from Tom Behler:  KB8TYJ